You Have To Win The Game (PC, 2012)
Graphics-6 Sound-4 Control-8 Challenge-6.5 Story-4
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-4
Overall Score-6
+
Pretty good art direction overall
Some good puzzles (platforming puzzles, the "riddle")
Wall jump and double jump are used well
Fast paced overall
Some funny and interesting room names (see VVVVVV for a similar vibe)
Decent variation
Three different endings (neither are particularly interesting though),
+/-
Very frequent checkpoints (see below, kind of feels like playing with save states, quick fix for an uneven difficulty curve), two moons?,
Pretty small world
Open ended metroid style gameplay
Many generic items to collect for a better ending (it's not very good though)
Uses a garish four color (purple, cyan, black and white) palette
Few abilites and no weapons
Options screen sort of gives away the riddle
-
Trial & error (tilde key looks different and is placed different on european keyboards, game starts over without any power ups (and auto-saves!) if you go into the last portal without answering the riddle, some cheap room entrances, some checkpoints are bad for you, some rooms are too hard on first try, some troll challenges (the upper right money bag in the hardcore prawn room for example),
No map and the basic graphics make it easy to get lost
Plenty of dead space (the long hallway near the "grawl!" room is particularly annoying)
Some backtracking despite all the checkpoints everywhere
Forced "crt frame" overlay on the graphics (makes it harder to see where some platforms near the edge of the screen end and the bulge effect is kind of distracting, however the smudging of colors and glow effect is kind of nice)
Bad endings
No in-game music and so-so sfx (80s PC nostalgia I guess)
Somewhat high default jump height
F12 for screenshots doesn't work
Some money bags are too hard to spot
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-4
Overall Score-6
+
Pretty good art direction overall
Some good puzzles (platforming puzzles, the "riddle")
Wall jump and double jump are used well
Fast paced overall
Some funny and interesting room names (see VVVVVV for a similar vibe)
Decent variation
Three different endings (neither are particularly interesting though),
+/-
Very frequent checkpoints (see below, kind of feels like playing with save states, quick fix for an uneven difficulty curve), two moons?,
Pretty small world
Open ended metroid style gameplay
Many generic items to collect for a better ending (it's not very good though)
Uses a garish four color (purple, cyan, black and white) palette
Few abilites and no weapons
Options screen sort of gives away the riddle
-
Trial & error (tilde key looks different and is placed different on european keyboards, game starts over without any power ups (and auto-saves!) if you go into the last portal without answering the riddle, some cheap room entrances, some checkpoints are bad for you, some rooms are too hard on first try, some troll challenges (the upper right money bag in the hardcore prawn room for example),
No map and the basic graphics make it easy to get lost
Plenty of dead space (the long hallway near the "grawl!" room is particularly annoying)
Some backtracking despite all the checkpoints everywhere
Forced "crt frame" overlay on the graphics (makes it harder to see where some platforms near the edge of the screen end and the bulge effect is kind of distracting, however the smudging of colors and glow effect is kind of nice)
Bad endings
No in-game music and so-so sfx (80s PC nostalgia I guess)
Somewhat high default jump height
F12 for screenshots doesn't work
Some money bags are too hard to spot